It's not About What's In Your Wallet ( And it is)

How many of you remember the VISA credit card commercial “What’s in your wallet?” My favorites involved the marauding Vikings on holiday, but they all ended with a bellowing question- “What’s in YOUR wallet?” I think of it whenever I hear this gospel lesson. Because what’s in our wallets is close to us, and important to us. As the Pharisees are being tested by Jesus as much as they thought they were testing him. But what exactly is Jesus really getting at when he tells them to hand him a coin and then tells them to give to Caesar what is Caesar’s but give to God what is God’s?

The short answer is “I don’t know for sure.” But I do think we have Caesars in our lives too.  And by that I mean whatever occupies us and controls us.

The Pharisees and God’s people lived in an occupied land. They were taken over by the Romans who brought their laws, their army and their money. Literally the answer to what’s in their wallet is money that had a picture of Caesar on it and proclaimed he was the Son of God. So much for the people who say they will have no other gods before the Lord. Claiming allegiance to the Lord was seemingly an impossible dilemma. They were allowed to worship their God as long as they also worshipped Caesar. And it seems they are caught and yet, they have no trouble even in the temple of handing Jesus that coin. The one they tell others they can’t have in the temple and must exchange for temple money for a price. They have a lot of those Caesar coins and they’re not sharing. And they have no trouble going to the occupying leaders about Jesus. Their words about God and their actions have gotten pretty disconnected. Frankly, they’ve spent an awful lot of time cozying up to the very thing that threatens them.

We are not occupied in the same way, but we are also living in a system that demands much it seems. However we answer the question of what occupies us affects our decision making, how we see the world, and tells where we place our hope. Often it is in our wallet. Even though our money boldly says “In God We Trust” on it.

But I wonder if anyone has looked at those words when you’re buying something, or before you spend money. Does anyone stop and look at those words “ In God We Trust” and ask if this decision lives that out? Anyone? Me neither.

With credit cards and electronic purchases becoming the norm kids today perhaps no longer will even see those words. They won’t even cross our minds.

We’re all far more likely to pay attention to the words of the brands we are loyal to. Now advertisers have gone beyond trying to convince us of a brand- it’s about creating a whole community. There are Nike people. And I-phone people. There are Weis shoppers and Redners shoppers. There are whole systems based upon these loyalties- there are even loyalty cards. And while some offer us a deal here and there, they are mainly just tracking what we buy to get us to buy more of what it seems we can’t do without. I keep waiting for my loyalty to Turkey Hill really give me the better gas discount. They tell me to keep spending. Getting us to cozy up to their system and treat the connections as real. To be the thing we want most. But they’re not real connections.

What’s in our wallet says a lot. It says not only what we are loyal to, but I think it says where we place our hope. That’s why retail therapy is a thing. For those of you who don’t know, that’s shopping at a favorite place to feel better. The next product is bound to make a difference until maybe we do realize that VISA really does own us. There’s even a spoof on the Viking commercial where the person realizes how much they owe and the Vikings come back and smash it all.

The truth in this is that there is an obvious tension in life between how to live a life of faith in the world and how to live in the culture of our world. How to live without letting the culture own us.

And I wonder if maybe the real question Jesus was asking the Pharisees and us is, whether we think the pull of the culture is so strong we don’t even try?

Maybe we begin to think it’s too much to ask how faith shapes our decisions in life about spending and saving and giving. That’s a place of no hope in the end. Yet Jesus says give to Caesar what is Caesar’s but give to God what is God’s.  Which may be a way of reminding us how our coins and our cards do not define us.

Because God does. We belong to God.

Jesus invites and even demands us to engage these words we say about God and ourselves- to speak of our Lord in terms of a real living relationship. And a source of hope. Because while God wants all of us, the good news is that God first says- you are mine. It’s a promise not a threat.

Words that are intended to reassure us that we are more than our money and don’t have to live in fear of having it all.

Perhaps now more than ever these are words of community and comfort and direction we need to hear. That our hope is not limited to what we can buy. That we can live in faith that God loves us, provides for us and saves us and we can believe there is a future and hope. Now more than ever as we look at our world and feel powerless we can be a community that continues to gather together around what is real- God’s love and promise today and forever in Christ’s work of the cross. That’s our hope. And it’s real.

In a few weeks, we will be gathering for our annual meeting, and voting upon a plan for how we will carry out ministry in the coming year. The time honored term is called a budget. And it often feels that our thoughts about bills and coins are the only way we see this process. But I want to suggest we view it as a statement of trust in God and as a statement of hope.

That the choices we make in our commitment will be based upon our trust in God so that we can support it financially. And that the choice we make in shaping ministry will be based upon what we believe God is calling us to do, not only what we feel used to doing.

Because we’re liberated by God from the weight of whatever feels like it occupies us. We are liberated! And our primary response is to say thank you! Thank God! And trust God’s providing as we carry out the gospel for others. So they can feel liberated and thankful too.

And this is who we CAN be because God claims us, loves us and empowers us to respond.

 

Let us pray- Lord God, sometimes we are unsure about how we can respond to your calling. Help us to surrender ourselves, and be thankful because we are yours, and to trust that you love us and provide for us, so that we can break free from what holds us back and share of ourselves for the sake of your world.

In Jesus’ name. Amen

 PS- here's the Vikings!

 

This is the Good Stuff

Grace and peace to you, my sisters and brothers in Christ, in the name of the Triune God. I bring you greetings from your sisters and brothers at Holy Spirit as we give thanks for the privilege of sharing in ministry with you for the sake of the gospel here in Reading. This afternoon we will share in the CROP walk for hunger, but today especially I want to lift up and share our gratitude for a way you support our ministry over the years that ties in to our readings for today.

At Holy Spirit, we have an afterschool ministry called the Doves Nest, which provides a free meal, tutoring, literacy assistance and fun for 40-80 kids three days a week. Most of the time we are grateful for the meals we receive from the Kids Café program of the Greater Berks Food Bank, but a few times a year we are blessed by a feast when members from here at Nativity lovingly prepare and deliver a special meal that takes the place of the usual food.

I can assure you, that when the kids, especially the older ones, get wind of the fact that a meal is coming from Nativity, that good news spreads like wildfire! Poor Shirleen has to plan her arrival so she’s not mobbed by the kids. News of a meal from Nativity is like the proclamation of a feast! The kids go around and make sure everyone knows the news- “you gotta be here- this is the GOOD stuff!”

While I am sure that no one is thinking of well aged wines (God forbid!) or fatted calves, it is indeed a great meal. One that invites our kids into something different- knowing that great preparations were made, for them, and the taste of that great meal lingers in their memories and speaks love. And for some of our kids this meal sustains them in the midst of places that don’t seem all that great or maybe even loving. And that’s where our readings come in.

Admittedly, it’s hard to overlook the intensity of the language in the gospel this day, which doesn’t seem all that loving either. But it’s helpful to remember this is a parable. A story told to show a truth. Not told to show that the story is fact.

And I’d like to suggest that at this point in the gospel as Jesus has been sparring with the leaders for some time about who he is and what he’s about and it’s helpful to see that the strong images are intended to get attention about a truth about God’s power and purpose. Because you don’t want to miss out on what God’s up to. It’s a message humanity often misses.

All our readings this day call to mind the tensions of the world but they also point to God’s providing in the midst of it. In exile and strife, and struggle and confusion, there are these meals. Spoken of to a people in exile, to a church in conflict, to those beset by enemies, and those who weren’t expected to be included. There are these great meals.

In different ways, we ourselves know what makes for a great meal in our lives. It can be a great meal just because the ingredients are exquisite and the chef talented. It can also be a great meal to be with family or a special day. Or maybe you’ve been hungry for a long time and you finally get to eat. Maybe you’ve been sick and unable to taste or take in food, but now you can. Maybe you’ve been in a place of dark shadows, of loneliness or loss, staring at an empty chair, but today an empty chair is filled with a dinner companion- and that’s a great meal. Perhaps you’ve been at odds with someone but now there is a peace at the table. All of those are great meals, are they not?

Even our psalm this day lifts up a feast, however unlikely.

Psalm 23 is the most well known passage of Scripture in much of the world. We probably all know it well. After we hear the Lord is our shepherd and we are led by still waters and to green pastures, but before forever with God, there it is. “You prepare a table before me even in the presence of my enemies.” Even when we’re surrounded by struggles whether they are people or emotions. This is gospel for us in all kinds of times and places.

I heard it this past week as one of my colleagues told a story as a Vietnam vet of being in a watchtower on a hill with a few guys, eating lots of C-rations, and being pretty isolated. But occasionally they’d get mail. And on Christmas Eve he got a package from his fiancée.

Inside was a canned pheasant. I didn’t even know you could put a pheasant in a can. Canned pheasant and mandarin oranges and popcorn. An odd feast. And way too much for one person but those cans had to be eaten as soon as opened. So he and his fellow soldiers there in that tower surrounded by shots most of the time, had a feast, one he still calls one the best ever- as the shots stopped for a awhile, and there was a feast on Christmas Eve.

From those cans came a feast that spoke of the love of his fiancée, the protection of God and the goodness of something unexpected and abundant.

This is what our Scripture shows us- not only the goodness and power of the food, but of the provider who continually prepares and invites. Our God continually lovingly prepares for and invites those who long for it, and those who don’t get it. Those who will savor it and those who will dismiss it. Even in places and times we can’t expect-God provides a feast, prepares a table and says “Come.”

And Jesus asks, “Do you really want to miss out on grace?”

God is feeding us too. Again this day-in the midst of our busy-ness and our challenges. Our frailties and doubts. Dark places and short-comings. There’s a great meal here that offers the power to sustain us today- it is a feast and celebration!

And so, we’re invited to take all those other things that fill our hearts and minds, and are maybe even distracting us now and STOP.

Stop what we’re about and be fed with good things. Good things that will be carried in our hearts and minds so we can so as Paul encourages- think on these things. Think on the truth and honor of what God offers, the pure grace and wonder worthy of praise-

the things God gives, that are stronger than enemies, and dark places and prison cells. Because the God of peace meets us in this meal and is with us. And it starts here.

In order to be the church that shares good news, I think we must first stand in that grace and take it in again. And the best part is that we’re invited!  To be lovingly fed by Christ and strengthened to walk in God’s world and to love others- to share as the kids would say, the news of the good stuff!

This is the invitation- so Come and be fed.  AMEN

 

Gloom Despair and Agony on Me

Growing up as a child, and especially with family in the South, we used to watch of a lot of a show called Hee Haw. It was a variety show depicting life in a fictional town of folk in the country and their shenanigans and their sorrows. And at some point in the show they’d cut to a scene of guys in their overalls and their moonshine jugs, lamenting their troubles and singing  a song that went like this-“Gloom, despair, and agony on me, deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all. Gloom, despair and agony on me!” And they all wail.

That’s pretty much how the Book of Ruth opens

The first chapter of Ruth sets up the story that follows starting with a time “In the days when the judges ruled” which refers back to the time of the judges, a time of chaos and disobedience in Israel. At the end of the book of the book of Judges it reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes. (Judges 21:25). {Katharine Schifferdecker writes) Doing what is right in your own eyes is never a good thing in the Bible; and, indeed, the book of Judges traces a story of decline and anarchy in Israel.

God regularly raises up "judges" -- military and political leaders -- to save Israel from their enemies, but they fall back into mayhem every time. The book of Judges, which comes right before Ruth, ends with inter-tribal conflict and these ominous words: "In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes"

Doing "what was right in their own eyes" is a direct denial of the Law given to Israel, those words for life we studied earlier this summer.  The Law is given to promote life, life with God and life in community. Israel, in the book of Judges, fails to fulfill that Law and so falls into chaos.

And this is how we end up with the women in the story today.

Famine hits Bethlehem. Literally the city who name means “house of bread” has none. Naomi and her family migrate to Moab. There, the deaths of her husband and two sons leave Naomi bereft, empty. They left Bethlehem, the house of bread, because of a famine, she and her husband and sons. And at first it seems it went well, but then she lost her husband. And under the law of Israel, this meant that her sons must provide. And she probably wasn’t exactly delighted that they married foreign girls, but the bigger problem is that those marriages produced no children. So when after ten years, those two sons have also both died, these women are stuck. Naomi and Ruth and Orpah are stuck. And they’ve now given the land they had to pay bills and survive, but whatever they had is all gone.

If the book of Judges is largely about the people of Israel not keeping the Law, then Ruth is about people going above and beyond the requirements of the Law. Ruth, a foreigner, a Moabite (a fact we're reminded of often even though she is living in her own land in the beginning, is not required to follow the laws of Israel. She has married an Israelite, but when he dies, the expected thing is that she will return to the home of her parents. That's what her sister-in-law, Orpah, does. That's what Naomi, her mother-in-law, urges her to do.

And we don’t know what kind of relationship they had, whether her mother in law was kind or friendly before this. But Ruth chooses to demonstrate faithfulness, lovingkindness, covenant love instead. She chooses to enter into the covenant of Israel and Israel's God, saying, "Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (1:16).”

Ruth chooses to join her story to the story we've been hearing the last several weeks; she chooses to enter into Israel's covenant with God. She chooses the life of being a stranger in a foreign land. To leave all that she has known and to go to a place she's never been, with no assurance of security.

And it might not turn out well. No one is looking for a childless widow to marry. Certainly not one who in 10 years had no children.  A childless widow in ancient Israel had to rely on the kindness of those around her. In this story, Naomi relies on Ruth, and Ruth herself has to rely on the kindness of strangers.

If we stay focused on the gloom and despair, Naomi, we don’t appreciate Ruth. But Naomi is arguably the main character in the book. In some way we may know the pain of her loss and disappointment, her grief and bitterness. She speaks honestly. We too know places like that.

Naomi knows that these foreigners will not provide for her. She also knows that even going back to Bethlehem she has only the slightest of hopes. Because only if the people follow the law God gave to care for the widow can she live. And remember they aren’t doing that- the people are doing what they please. The reality is that most such women died of starvation or of the consequences of prostitution, their only other way to survive. Orpah is sad, but can go home and hope for the best from her tribe. Ruth could as well. But Ruth chooses two things that we shouldn’t expect. She chooses to stay with her kvetching mother in law, regardless of what their relationship was like before, and she chooses the God and people of Israel.

The bitterness of Naomi is not the whole of the story.

We don’t know anything about the journey in between but we do know that poor Naomi, now has a traveling companion and indeed a partner for whatever may come. Yet when they reach Jerusalem, my heart breaks for Ruth for a moment, because after all this Naomi wails to her own people and says, “just call me Mara”-

Bitter. And stands there with Ruth at her side and proclaims her life is empty and she has nothing. Wow! Really?

Sometimes we do that too. We are Mara. Perhaps…where ever that place is for you, God is speaking. We claim we are empty or the people around us aren’t who we want them to be.  

Ruth goes above and beyond what the law would ever expect of her, a law she doesn’t have to be bound by. To show the heart of God and of the law- God’s heart of steadfast loving faithfulness.

Our God loves us steadfastly- even when we sing of gloom and despair and discount the ones around us, God clings in love and won’t let go. And promises the story goes on.

Ruth’s loyalty and love for her mother-in-law holds the promise of something more, as does the final verse of this chapter: “They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest” (1:22). Naomi is empty (1:21), but faithful Ruth is right beside her, and the harvest is coming.

And the harvest coming whether Naomi is bitter or not.

The harvest is coming still. May God fill the places of emptiness in our hearts, and open our eyes to see the wonder and faithfulness of those around us in God’s story of love.

 

Listen, Remember and Live

Listen. From the very beginning God has been saying we should listen. Our brains are capable of listening to about 125 words a minute, but thinking about 1,000 to 3,000 in the same amount of time. If you search for resources on effective listening, there are 1000’s of entries because most of us are preoccupied or distracted about 75% of the time. So many choices.

Listen, Adam, Remember and live. He must’ve told Eve once she was created. Because when the serpent comes, saying- “So you really think you can’t do that? You think you’ll die?” She remembers, “That’s right, and we’re not even going to touch it.”  

No one told Adam not to touch the tree. Those brains were already thinking. “Are you sure? You don’t really believe that do you? Eat it and you’ll be like God. Then who needs God?” In a modern world, they would have gotten on the internet and Googled trees to see if what God said seemed right. When we want to go our own way, we choose who we listen to.  

Adam and Eve don’t die, but something’s different. They’re ashamed and nervous. They try to fix it. And that’s when they decide to sew together the fig leaves. And I wonder whose idea THAT was. The first generations of people hearing the story would’ve laughed hysterically. “They did what? They used fig leaves?!” Fig leaves on bare skin would have felt like sandpaper. Scratch, scratch, Hurry up before God gets here. Scratch, scratch. We don’t want to be caught, Scratch. Scratch.

Like that would work. While God is angered, God gives them real clothes.

When we humans think we’ve become like God we usually show we really cannot handle the knowledge. Sadly, our track record shows that those scratchy fig leaves are the least of it. God made us to prosper, serve and to care for- but we’d rather control and plunder and take over. Forgetting God’s promise to sustain us. The scratching leads to clawing and fighting and killing. Too many examples abound.

Lent offers time to stop and listen to God and find our way, which is about our identity and purpose. Adam and Eve received an identity and a task, assured they were provided for. But that fruit looked really good to eat, what could be wrong? And that’s how evil works. We’re most often not enticed with things that appear to be bad, but things that seem good.

There are two things at work- God testing and evil tempting. We often see them the same because we don’t want either. We want to go our own path. God’s testing stretches and encourages us. It strengthens us to trust God and to follow a framework for living. God wants to show us that we are able with God’s help to be faithful. And that God desires life for us.

At the same time however, the Tempter’s purpose is to convince us that’s a horrible idea. To try and cause us to make a mistake, to sin. God’s purpose is to strengthen faith. Satan’s purpose is to weaken it. We must always ask-what are we listening to? Will it draw us closer to God or cast us farther away?

And here’s the thing-temptation is not coercion. No one forced the first humans to eat, or Jesus to eat bread. Tempters can’t make us do things, but they can convince us to want to. They don’t take away our will, they try to change it. Usually it’s not about not knowing what to do, just wanting to do something different. And picking who we listen to.

Even worse, the choices are blurred-decisions that can be good involve the wrong timing, or have large scale consequences we might not grasp. If we do not continually listen to God’s word and remember, we lose perspective.

Worship is the key way we listen and to remember God’s words for life. Notice I did not say “church.” Deciding to go to church is like deciding to go to the mall. Coming to worship God is different.

Deciding to go to church is about whether anything really big is happening, or who we want to sit with. We can then choose to not come when it’s not tempting enough. Because we don’t need church to worship God. We can listen to the voice saying spending time with family or catching up on rest is better. After all we won’t die if we don’t come. And worship is not just an hour on Sunday, but every day of our lives.

Is the timing of our choices rooted in worshipping and serving God? Do our choices sustain our relationship or not? Will sports or travel or anything else have the power to save us, anymore than bread alone? What would it mean for us to test our own resolve to truly listen to and serve God?

After Jesus was baptized, the very first thing God says is- This is my Son- listen to him. And today if we do, we see that the core of the temptations Jesus faced, was not about whether he was the Son of God but whether he would rely upon his power in self serving ways that would lead him away from his mission. His responses stay true to his identity and mission. He remained steadfast in believing in God’s power and providing.

The core of what we face is not about whether we are children of God but whether we rely upon self serving ways or God’s power in our lives. Where are we self-serving? Where are we struggling with trust in God? Where are we angry with God for not simply acting according to our demands?

You are probably wondering where the gospel is this day. Here is the good news- 

Jesus after 40 days in the wilderness fasting surely was tempted. But shows not only his identity but his obedience, even to the cross. Knowing what he endured, and what was to come, and knowing our track record as humans, he gave his followers a prayer.

A prayer that meets us wherever wilderness is, and whatever temptation looks like. So we can listen to and remember God’s way. And strengthen our faith. Not only in Sunday worship but every day.

Martin Luther suggested we begin each day by thanking God, then saying the 10 Commandments and saying the prayer Jesus gave-the Lords Prayer. Every day- first thing- to shape the whole day. I imagine how some days, our attention would be caught by different parts of the words. Perhaps not unlike how Jesus felt in those 40 days. Practicing for when the tempter came. So he could hear God’s words more strongly than others.

I invite you on this day we have all lost an hours sleep, to close your eyes, resist sleep, and let’s listen.

“I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your Dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I pray that you would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please you. For into your hands I commend myself, my body, and soul and all things. Let your holy angel be with me that the evil one may have no power over me. Amen.”

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery

You shall have no other gods before me,

You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain,

Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy,

Honor your mother and father,

You shall not kill,

You shall not commit adultery,

You shall not steal,

You shall not bear false witness,

You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,

You shall not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor

Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, On earth as in heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And lead us not into temptation, But deliver us from evil

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory

Forever and ever

Amen

 

What if those were the first words we heard each day?

And what if every week when we saw how we did or did not reach those words, we were then here to listen, remember and be strengthened,  wherever the week had gone to hear-

This is my body given for you, this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Remember.

This is for us.

Listen, remember, and live.

Living in Dignity

There's a word we don’t hear in our lessons today. We hear so much about love it almost just rolls past us. But one word I think we should engage is Dignity. It never appears in our lessons but I think is very much a part of what God’s law and Jesus’ teaching are about-the worth of each person God created matters to God. Dignity is a word sorely needed in our world on so many levels. Not the least of which is the notion that “Stand your ground” and “turn the other cheek” are incompatible.

Jesus is preaching and talking about loving neighbors and the crowd knows it. It’s from Leviticus-Love your neighbor as yourself. But here’s the thing- the word that is not in Leviticus-enemy. There’s no hating enemy in Leviticus. It might seem like Jesus is a little sloppy about remembering Leviticus. But I think he preaches to what he knows people have decided to believe. “Not my neighbor” means “OK to hate.”

He preaches dignity to the crowd for themselves, for those Galileans who are oppressed by the Roman rule, and for all their others. We all have “others.” The ones who are not neighbors to love.

I’m just back from the Youth Sleepover, where kids constantly question the scope of how much is really expected, questions about what each newly encountered situation demands: “ But Pastor…!” you REALLY mean I have to do THIS?” No wonder those 10 commandments became over 600 rules in Leviticus. We all ask the questions.

Today Jesus sums up God’s “yes” to our “No” about the poor, the stranger, the deaf, blind, rich, extended family, and more. All the people we encounter not those we want to. And if you think about your day and who you encounter- it’s often largely not family. If you stop and think many of us encounter and spend more time with the doctor, the store clerk, the bus driver, the food server, coworkers.  What does it mean to love and honor them? With dignity? Maybe it starts with seeing them as people in the picture as opposed subjects of McWages,  immigration limits, healthcare and more.

A little deeper, think about all the people you just cannot abide or maybe even have hurt you. Them too? One of our kids on the overnight is struggling with controlling anger. She already has a label-she has “anger management” issues. Like that ends the possibilities. She's been taught it's the response to everything that is challenging. When she gets mad she thinks nothing of “popping” the offender. But I have "anger management issues." She insists that “ I choose my attitude based upon how you treat me.” Sounds kind of like “eye for an eye.” And she can hold her anger and not let go. As I work with her to find better avenues, I shared with her the saying “holding a grudge is like letting someone live rent free in your head.” Why would any of us give that much of us to our "enemy"?

It sounds easy to talk the talk, but the real walk is so much harder. Because frankly til Jesus is done, there are no enemies. And love isn’t just about being nice, its about God’s framework as our lens. Our default says it’s not possible. Or at the least that some great models accomplish it but it’s not reality. It is easy to overlook God at the center of relationships-I am the Lord and YOUR God.

Our walking in God’s ways and also turning away from things takes God. Relationships and wisdom are not static. Not just memorized it in Sunday school. Not a simple set of brightline moments. We tend to collapse time and history in ways that take away the reality of all of the in between good and bad. Owning the journey may be one way to then recognize the importance of walking close with God in guidance. Even if it’s only in looking back that we see where we’ve been with God. 

The truth is that if we really try, being God’s people, God’s reflection is heavy duty lifting. Yet, the early Christian church’s ability to embrace this and to relieve the misery and hardship of urban life for the majority poor in cities was the major factor in growth of Christianity. Being a persistent, pervasive and reflection of Christ so that the community is seen as God's.

Even as we might cringe to hear that God will provide for the good and evil. Comprehensive, indiscriminate and undeserved kindness is God. Even in Jesus’ time Josephus noted - “it is surely madness to expect God to show the same treatment to the just and the unjust!” The struggle is timeless. And it sounds so good but it’s so hard.

This is where I think our translation of the gospel gets it wrong. We hear “be perfect.” And frankly that be perfect part is just not for real. That’s kind of a crappy translation. Looking back to Leviticus, we hear- be holy as I the Lord your God am holy. And I think it’s fair to say that related to being holy is being whole. The greater righteousness which embodies God’s empire imitates God in wholeness.

To be whole or holy takes active trust and obedience- walking with. It takes what only God can give- faith and the Spirit

Constant and comprehensive love even in the face of opposition is what we see of God across Scripture and then to the cross. And we are then empowered to be whole, doing love toward all, including those we call enemies.

To even begin takes constant discerning of what the kingdom looks like in each situation. But one writer notes, “no matter who we are the Jesus truth is this: Because I am made in the image of God, I am deserving of dignity and respect. Often Sunday School repetition has lessened the shocking impact of Jesus’ words for us today, nothing can lessen even for us, how very hard it is for us to love an enemy: how incredibly difficult it is to live this truth. But if we are to live as people of dignity, it is a skill we have to learn.”

And here is where there is another challenge. We often lift up great models of the faith- Martin Luther King, Jr., Desmond Tutu, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and others. Like they are icons or super Christians. And they are almost inaccessible. Often model people of the faith are hard for us to embrace as connected to us.

So I want to share in closing two stories about everyday people in the struggle to live God’s dignity.

On the sleepover, our 12 kids got there to join about 100 kids total. We were sitting church for the opening and one of our girls turned to me and said, “Pastor, we are surrounded by a sea of whiteness. How’s this gonna be for us?” The fear of the enemy dynamic was alive for her. How will the Riveras and Figueroas, and Rosarios fit in the picture? As it turned out our 11 girls were put in a room with three girls from Bernville, a town of a few hundred that doesn’t experience our diversity. I am happy to say that in the midst of concern, the gospel was proclaimed in how everyone came together. Even if it centered around Justin Bieber as much as Jesus. That’s a story that has to continue to be lived to become working reality.

Here’s the second story, of love and dignity when it has not been reality. Philip Yancy’s book Rumours of Another World tells of South Africa, at a Truth and Reconciliation hearing after the end of apartheid. Where people tried to reconcile the injustices.

“A policeman recounted how he and other officers, had shot at point blank range an 18 year old boy, just because he was black and then burned the body to destroy the evidence. Eight years later, the men returned to the boy’s home and forced his mother to watch as they bound her husband, poured gas over him and set him on fire. The room grew quieter and quieter. And then the judge turned to the woman and asked: ’what do you want from him?’

She replied, ‘I want him to go to the place my husband was burned, and gather up the dust there so that I can give him a decent burial.’

‘He took all my family away from me, but I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month, I would like for him to come to my home and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him. And I would like him to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know forgiveness is real.”

Imagine the power of that wholeness.

I cannot imagine the cost to her, what her neighbors thought of her. But what dignity, healing and hope she brought through her love for her enemy, not just to herself, and not just for him, but for all who hear the story. Including us.

We don’t love our neighbors because they deserve it. We love them because God says they are our sisters, and our brothers, and because God, while we were yet sinners, loved us first.”

God calls us into this holiness, this wholeness, this love. It is hard work. But if we want to live with dignity, it is the only thing to do.

 

(For more on this I invite you to read "What Dignity" on the www.sacredise.com blog)

Mustard Seed Faith

At the end of a really full week- parishioners in crisis, interviewing an organist, afterschool ministry, Bible Club, Table Church, a wedding, blessing of animals and funeral! I am most grateful for David Lose’s postings this week that helped significantly with my sermon! Without which I wonder what I would have said! Here ‘tis:

This past week ( thanks to David Lose) I got a chance to see a video about some folks in Detroit who noticed the city wasn’t able to mow the parks in their area due to financial crisis. And you know we’ve all heard the headlines out of Detroit, about whole areas being basically abandoned because the city cannot take care of them. And as we listen to the lament in Habakkuk today, I am sure as much as we lament things here in Reading, those people in Detroit have some pretty big laments too! But as David writes, "instead of complaining, or shaking their heads, or writing an editorial, or just getting depressed…instead of all those perfectly understandable things, some people just did something about it." Moved by the Spirit, in what I think is faithfulness.

They are called the Detroit Mower Gang started after some city parks were closed and left uncared for. They just started mowing all those weeds and grass. And one guy tells us after mowing under a swing set, and before you can even finish when you turn around, there is a kid or a group of kids swinging. Those kids have been waiting.

Waiting for someone to make it possible for them to play again. The Mower Gang says what they do is not about beautification. It’s about restoring play places. There are a lot of kids in Detroit whose play places are taken away- the Mower Gang is bringing them back. And you know they’ve discovered that when they are doing this together- it doesn’t even feel like work- they are having a good time and it’s transforming. It didn’t start with a big initiative and a lot of social research. It was a guy who looked around and saw something. And an ordinary thing has become huge in many lives.

http://www.mowergang.com/

Just as true for our part of the kingdom. I know a neighborhood woman who doesn’t have enough as it is, but she feeds others, so much so that people know she does this and give her food to share. Someone else picks up the parking lot trash, twice a week and sees it as his ministry. He hasn’t worked up the nerve to sit here yet, but he has a ministry. Another beautifies a small park almost singlehandedly, just playing in the dirt. Still others call and check on those  homebound, or send cards offering a lifeline to the lonely. And a couple folks faithfully pray that prayer list I encourage you to take home- each day. Simple things, Every day faith that might look like just a tiny seed.

This past week we learned a kid’s song on Wednesday night that captures what I want to share with you about everyday faith. Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains, move mountains. Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains by the power of God. Today, the disciples just don’t get it --

"they think faith is something they can quantify and they just want more of it. In fairness, earlier Jesus had not only warned them about making others stumble but also instructed them that they must forgive those who wrong them … again and again and other challenges. No wonder they ask for more faith -- they wonder who in the world can live up to Jesus’ expectations.

And maybe it’s like that for some of us: Overwhelmed by the demands  placed on us as “good Christians,” not sure we’re up to the task, and wondering what we signed on for. Maybe feeling like being a disciple is too much for us. But faith doesn’t have to be heroic. Faith, as Jesus describes it, is just doing your job, not because of any sense of reward but simply because it needs doing. Doing what needs to be done right in front of you. This, Jesus says, the disciples can already do. When we feel daunted by discipleship, we need to hear that sometimes faith can be pretty ordinary. Even that faith could uproot and move a mulberry tree – Jesus says it really doesn’t take all that much faith to be faithful."

But God’s power in these things will be more colossal than we may know!

"At the same time, some of us who may feel absolutely nothing like the disciples. It’s not that we’re overwhelmed by the tasks of Christian discipleship, actually we don’t even think about it. Going to church and perhaps generally being a good person is pretty much what it means to be a Christian. Perhaps it never occurs then that the rest of our lives are about living as disciples. Being a good friend, or working at jobs to keep food on the table, or paying your taxes," praying for our leaders and voting, or any of the other ordinary stuff we do every day are also, as Martin Luther tells us, about our Christian faith.

"Even the simplest things done in faith can have a huge impact:

•Imagine, for a moment, if you were to take stock of all the good you did in the past week in your roles as employers and employees, students, parents, citizens, volunteers and more. It would add up very quickly into a mountain.

•Imagine what the previous week would have been like if all those things hadn’t gotten done. If we subtracted them from the planet over the last week the world would be a grimmer today.

•Then imagine what the world would look like next week if you, realizing even our ordinary acts are being used by God to care for God’s world, and we felt empowered to do even more?"

 What if your mustard seed grew?

"Even what seems ordinary matters much to God.  God gives us faith and wants us to exercise it! Faith, isn’t an idea, it’s a muscle. And the more we use that muscle, the stronger it gets. And Jesus tells his disciples -- then and now -- we’ve got all that we need to be faithful, and that being faithful, is about recognizing all the God-given opportunities just to show up and do what needs to be done:

•doing our work

•caring for those in need
•protecting the vulnerable
•reaching out to the lonely
•befriending the friendless
•keeping the world going
•contributing to the common good.

All the ordinary stuff we do all the time, taken together and blessed by God, can be pretty extraordinary.

But faith is not only a muscle, it’s also an adventure. It’s putting one foot in front of the other and walking toward a future we do see yet but trust God is fashioning. It’s heading out the door each day looking for opportunities to be God’s partner and co-worker in the world. It’s imagining that the various challenges put in front of us are actually opportunities that invite us to grow as disciples and witness to God’s presence and goodness in the world.

This is everyday faith, the ordinary, extraordinary faith that we’re invited to practice day in and day out. It’s not heroic, but it is essential."

 Here’s the adventure-

Take a moment and close your bulletin and take a look at the picture. –there we are- all those mustard seeds. Together. Now imagine all of those seeds growing as Jesus says. Moving mountains in the here and now!

What’s to stop that from being so?

AMEN  

 

 For the vimeo of the Mower Gang, visit David's blog at:
 

http://www.davidlose.net/2013/10/what-is-faithfulness/

 

Overcoming the Whispers

So today we catch up with the people who are NOT in a wilderness, they are not really in a bad place. They’re pretty settled. Because God has already done the rescuing. Life’s Ok, and now they’re being asked to remember all the bad stuff they’ve lived through. In Deuteronomy we hear people being told to remember a past they really would rather not. Who wants to remember wandering in a strange land, isolated, confused, unsure? Can’t we just put that behind us? They’re called to come together and remember. Then respond. Told to bring an offering that confirms that God fulfilled a promise. Remember- remember that real moment of vulnerability. When you were really doubting and the Lord heard and responded. Remember your history not so you can be stuck there, but so you can focus upon how God responded. Remember that God has the power to provide, and to deliver and to give a future. Because you will need that. Because doubt will show up again. Remember your past and celebrate your present, you remind yourselves you also have a future with God. Because you’ll need to trust God’s history even more than your own. Your capacity to see that future will depend upon your connection to God. Remember. Strengthening that connection is as important in non-crisis moments as in critical ones.

Because lots of other voices out there will convince you otherwise. And in Scripture, those voices are called lots of names, the devil, the tempter, Satan. In the Hebrew language, the word for devil is Satan. But interestingly there are lots of satans. But there is one Ha Satan. The word satan means “adversary”. Ha Satan is THE adversary. Picture if you will being surrounded by adversaries. Maybe life feels like that sometimes. Like a contest.

Other times thought it might feel more like how the religion of Islam describes the devil. Shaytan, is the whisperer- the voice that when we listen to it, takes us from hearing God. The whisperer.

Maybe that is more like it for many of us. Being surrounded by whispering voices. Times when like the psalms we hope God will keep us free from the trap. Or we hear enemies whisper and suspect the worst before knowing if it is truth. Or fear others will turn against us. Or in Proverbs, a whisper separates friends. All ways of getting at our capacity to trust God and each other. Or not. The whisperer shows up in our doubts.

Who are you gonna listen to?

The people beyond the crisis are told to practice how to respond even when all seems well. Give thanks to God , remember and give the first of the harvest. Not something brought because the harvesting is done and you can see that it’s OK to give God a little. Come before you know the outcome. Because when you do you confront your doubts and meet God. Because if something happened to the rest of the harvest you have now given up your future for God’s in faith that God has you covered. This is where the whisperer starts.

What if a storm comes? You don’t know everything, you don’t have enough, you’re not in charge, you might go hungry. Can you hear the whispers? Who are you going to listen to?

Even if we’re not terribly stressed our world suggests that any threat to our sense of individualism or desires is a potential threat. We cannot be vulnerable. We don’t like the word loss. It makes life sound like a contest. And even God is our adversary. So when God says Come and give thanks like that and then live with everyone. Even those who are not you. Together. It just doesn’t compute. What if they need more? What if I have to sacrifice? They might mess with my tradition, my rights, my money. Or whatever else it is that I hold dear. I need my promises first. I need to fill my hunger first.

Can you hear the whispers? So many challenges where we feel alone trying to decide. Now imagine Jesus, seemingly alone when the whisperer shows up.  Tempted. Since you are the Son of God… go ahead. Do it! What difference does it make? Confronting and whispering to Jesus- you have the power, aren’t you hungry for it?

Jesus faces all our emotions and challenges.  I need to take care of me, I need to have control, I need a thrill. All things we do when we listen to the voices that say our doubts should fuel our decisions rather than our trust in God. Because sin in the end is listening to those whispers, and falling for the trap.

Jesus came and walked our wilderness and conquered to free us from this. For us to live in that belief takes practice. It takes being surrounded by others who support us, and it takes that connection to God in prayer. Jesus not only shows that God gets what it’s like to be us, Jesus shows us how to respond.

What gave Jesus the strength in the wilderness was the power of the Holy Spirit, and the word of Scripture, and the strength of prayer. I imagine him praying those same psalms for support. And it took the care of others, for him, the angels. For us it is each other here. To help each other remember who God has been, who God is and to trust God is our hope and future.  Responding to God and trusting takes community and practice. Lent is a time for us to strengthen our walk with Jesus. Together. By remembering what is really powerful and sustaining. That God’s history and power are stronger than our own.

 

So take a moment and think of something in which you feel life is pretty settled and blessed. A part of life where you feel God’s support- something that matters like love, job, relationship. Whatever you have thought of, this is a place of trust. Now think of a part of your life where it is a struggle. Something in your life that matters but that feels like not within reach. This is your place of doubt. Now ask yourself why you find it easy to trust God is in the one and not the other? And then I invite you this week to take home these lessons and to read them and ask God in Prayer to help you listen and trust that God is present and active. Practice. May you  sense Jesus walking with you in all things and filling your deepest hunger.


( Thanks to David Lose for the exercise at the end, though slightly modified)

Help Us Remember Who We Are

What if I announced we’re going stand outside and I’ll read to you all of the first five books of Scripture- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy and THEN after about six hours, we’ll come in here and celebrate? Just like they did in Nehemiah! I don’t know why we don’t do that! But more importantly why DO we do what we do here? Minus the six hour part, what these people did is part of what shapes what we do when we gather to worship. What we do is called the liturgy, which literally means “the work of the people” in worship. If you look closely you’ll see parts of our worship there in Nehemiah. Standing for part of Scripture, getting low for confession. Our pattern of gathering, confessing, being forgiven, blessing, feasting and sending forth, has roots in what they did. And frankly our need for doing so does too. It has everything to do with the ongoing relationship between humans and God across time. But today we hear about the Israelites. They’ve come home. Back from living in exile for half a century. A time that started when they’d been not only conquered and overrun, but stripped of their land, their language, their religion and their identity. Now they come home struggling to remember who they were. Some were born never even knowing that the old stories they heard were true. “Home” was unrecognizable, and things they were counting upon lie in ruins. Their leaders began rebuilding but even when they gather for worship, enemies, exhaustion and divisions mean they’re still not sure it’s right. What if there isn’t anything to pass on? They beg to hear the words of their God- that seems so distant. We need you to help us remember who we are. We feel a little unglued. And the things we are supposed to do don’t make sense.

So Ezra reads their story to them, the story of God and the people. God creating everything to fit together, and created humans out of a desire for relationship. God freeing them from slavery for a relationship. God giving the joy of  land and security and abundance saying, “I am the Lord your God and you are my people. All of this is for you.”  Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggeman says it was the memory of God’s gifts and that relationship that was the glue that bound the people together, keeping them close to God, reliant upon God and responsive to God. But years passed and they grew careless and cynical, their prosperity caused amnesia about who they really were, what they’re expected to do and to whom they’re accountable. It ends with them carted off to Babylon. Now for them to even hear their story, it takes more than a book because many of the people didn’t get the language. The Israelites spoke Hebrew but as exiles had to learn their conquerors’ language. For some it’s the only language they ever knew. It took not only Ezra and a book but those who knew the story and could speak the languages to translate so everyone could understand what was being said and what it meant. And they did because It was that important.

Important enough that everyone- men, women, young and old, are drawn together to learn who they are and how they got to this point. Their “Amens” at the end are a collective cry of recognition of just how far they’ve strayed and just how devoted God had been. The scope of God’s devotion and laboring overpowers them, and when set alongside the scope of their sins, they weep. And they’re scared-a God that powerful might decide enough’s enough. Frankly they wouldn’t be able to blame that response. How can anyone bridge the enormous gap between who we are and who we were made to be? This is not just their confession, it’s ours.

But as surely as the law reveals our sins, it also reveals our hope. The story of a God who keeps promises, promising Abraham he’d be the father of a nation, and assuring Jacob “I am with you and will protect you wherever you go.” A God who heard the cries of the oppressed in Egypt and delivered them. A God who forgives sins and helps those whose strength is gone. This same God says DO NOT WEEP. In spite of all that’s passed, do not weep. Because THIS day you have let God’s law fill your ears and it is a holy day. There is forgiveness as this day you have drawn near to God. Your being here is the joy of the Lord! God’s joy and ours- this is what it means to be a holy day!

And being here is our strength. Because every week we leave and it’s not long before we’re in danger of falling victim to amnesia as well. We too can lose sight of God’s gifts and the glue that holds us together, how we rely upon God. And if we take seriously our lives and confession, we come back like the Israelites, confused and unglued. But we get to come back! To confess and be forgiven and freed to worship God. That’s why confession is at the beginning.

Then we hear the word, and God invites us to feast. Again this day-Body,blood,grace. Bread and wine- for you.

It’s all designed to help us remember who we are, who God is and our call to help each other grasp how this shapes who we are to be. Because it’s that important.

And It all happens here together. It needs to be together. God’s word has authority, but it cannot live only in the pages of a book. It takes the “all” of community. Our faith is strengthened by hearing God’s word and by interpreting it together. None of us is able to be the sole source of strengthening our own faith. The glory and power are not in this book or a speaker or ourselves, but in what God brings forth in the midst of us as God’s people. We need to be glued together. That’s why we’re here.

So hear God’s Word anew. No matter where you’ve been, do not weep. Let God fill your ears and hear that this is for you, this holy day. Whether you are like me and often feel unworthy of this grace, remember our response to God is to thankfully radiate the glow of our joy farther and farther out. To share with those who haven’t heard, who have no joy, who know no feast, who feel no strength. May we be lifted up in forgiveness, filled with joy and strengthened by God’s Word that exceeds our expectations, and our reasoning, and then after the feast we sing- Thank the Lord and sing His praise! Tell everyone what He has done. Let everyone who seeks the Lord rejoice and proudly bear his name. For He recalls His promises and leads his people forth in joy with shouts of thanksgiving! Hallelu-jah- Praise God!

So go forth! Help others remember who they are. As we draw together in ever larger ways, being rededicated in God’s presence. Confessing, forgiving, worshipping, feasting and sending. Again and again. Until all who can understand, do. And tears turn into joy and we remember we are a people, not scattered exiles.

May God’s word fill our ears and hearts anew, inspire our speech, make us shine forth God’s love and glory for all to see. Our reminder and our mission starts again with this day. This holy day.